I spent the better part of Sunday at Appliances Unlimited, hosting a series of cooking demonstrations by Top Chef Canada finalist, Connie DeSousa. Unflappable, approachable, and with a good sense of humour, chef Connie charmed the crowd between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.. That’s a lot of goat cheese, but the chef handled it all, and lots of questions from the assembled crowd, with aplomb.

Chef Connie demonstrated two ways to work goat cheese, one a savoury preparation with roasted beets and a drizzle of lemon oil. The second preparation was a cheesecake, topped with B.C. cherries that her staff at Calgary’s Char Cut Roast House had canned last year. Staff at the restaurant canned 3,000 jars of produce in 2011, part of the owners’ commitment to eating local. The cheesecake was perfect in my mind, not as sweet as one usually expects, but I love that, and the cherries were a perfect topper. Chef Connie didn’t have the recipe with her yesterday, but told us it appeared in Canadian Living recently, so I went on their website and found it.

Chef DeSousa is very impressive to watch in action, and there wasn’t a question from the very-foodie-friendly audience that she didn’t absolutely nail. I was pleased to see the turnout for the demos, lots of local bloggers and tweeters, and regular folk who just love food and cooking.

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